This was a conclusion from the Joint Committee for Dialogue of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and the Cairo- based Permanent Committee of al-Azhar for Dialogue Among the Monotheistic Religions. The seven-member group, led by Cheikh Ali Abd al-Baqi Shahata as head of the al-Azhar delegation, and Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, head of the Catholic delegation, gave eight conclusions in their final statement today.

"Peace and security are much needed in our present world marked by many conflicts and a feeling of insecurity," they affirmed. "Both Christians and Muslims consider peace a gift from God and, at the same time, the fruit of human endeavor. No true and lasting peace can be achieved without justice and equality among persons and communities."

The committees went on to affirm that religious leaders of both faiths "have the duty to promote a culture of peace, each within his respective community, especially through teaching and preaching."

And they contended that a "culture of peace should permeate all aspects of life: religious formation, education, interpersonal relations and the arts in their diverse forms. To this end, scholastic books should be revised in order not to contain material which may offend the religious sentiments of other believers, at times through the erroneous presentation of dogmas, morals or history of other religions."

The religious leaders said that youth need "special care" to be protected from violence and fanaticism so that they become "peace builders for a better world."

The proposal, which has earned the support of Janet Napolitano, the newly chosen chief of the Department of Homeland Security, would embed radio chips in driver's licenses, or "enhanced driver's licenses." "Enhanced driver's licenses give confidence that the person holding the card is the person who is supposed to be holding the card, and it's less elaborate than REAL ID," Napolitano said in a Washington Times report.

Enhanced driver's licenses have built-in radio chips providing an identifying number or information that can be accessed by a remote reading unit while the license is inside a wallet or purse.

Imagine, she said, going to a First Amendment-protected event, a church or a mosque, or even a gun show or a peace rally. "What happens to all those people when a government operator carrying a reading device makes a circuit of the event?" she asked. "They could download all those unique ID numbers and link them." Participants could find themselves on "watch" lists or their attendance at protests or rallies added to their government "dossier."

She said even if such license programs are run by states, there's virtually no way that the databases would not be linked and accessible to the federal government.

"So if EDLs are the new direction for secure licenses in all states, it just reinforces what many have been telling me that DHS wants to expand this program and turn it into a wireless national ID with a different name," he said. "We'll wake up one day and without a vote in Congress DHS will just pass a rule and say something like 'starting next month you will need an EDL to fly on a plane, or to buy a gun, or whatever.'"

"One of the things that Prime Minister Brown and I talked about is how can we coordinate so that all the G20 countries, all the major countries around the world, in a coordinated fashion, are stimulating their economies?"

Brown was the first European leader to visit Obama since the president took office on January 20. Ahead of his trip to Washington, he called for a "global New Deal" in which countries would work together to jumpstart growth, revamp financial rules and boost funding to the International Monetary Fund.

"We've had a global banking failure and it's happened in every part of the world," he said. "We've got to rebuild that financial system," Brown added. "We've got to isolate the bad assets. We've got to underwrite the financial system so that loans can start again to businesses and families."

The Brown visit has raised comparisons to the relationship between Obama's and Brown's predecessors, George W. Bush and Tony Blair, who forged a close friendship in the aftermath of September 11 attacks in 2001.

Brown said he hoped his visit would renew already strong bonds. "It's a partnership of purpose that is born out of shared values," he said.

"We believe that however creation has come about and evolved, ultimately God is the creator of all things," he said.

Church teaching holds that Catholicism and evolutionary theory are not necessarily at odds. The evolution conference will explore intelligent design later this week, although not as science or theology but as a cultural phenomenon.

In his remarks, Levada referred to both Dawkins and the debate over teaching creationism in schools in the United States. He declined to pinpoint the Vatican's views, saying merely: "The Vatican listens and learns."